A Hardening of the Heart
by mum-to-you
Summary: It's Percy's sixth year, and already there are some noticable changes in the way he perceives his family, especially the twins. This story is darker than it seems, but it's probably the most subtle thing I've written so far. Lots of canon squeezed in.


A Hardening of the Heart

"To hell with them, then," thought Percy Weasley matter-of-factly. And he meant it.

Percy was the on-duty prefect in the Gryffindor common room that night, and out of the corner of his eye, he watched, eyes narrowed, arms folded across his chest, as his two younger brothers, Fred and George, joked their way into the center of attention of nearly everyone in the common room.

He had never understood it. Those two had always been a couple of court jesters, and in Percy's opinion, they quite often were rather mean-spirited about it. They teased and taunted and belittled everyone, and no secret or private thought was considered sacred to them, no matter how hurtful it might be to the person on the receiving end of the taunt. And yet, everyone _loved _them.

Whereas he, who was unfailingly polite and respectful, was . . . his ears burned at the thought . . . an object of ridicule. He shook his head, disgusted. It just made no sense.

No one did, of course, but if anyone _had_ been paying attention to Percy at that moment, they would have seen a wistful look flicker briefly across his pale, precise features before his face hardened into an implacable mask.

"All right, you lot, keep it quiet!" he admonished disapprovingly. "Boys, people_ are_ trying to study here." He saw Fred and George pull faces, then lean over to their youngest brother Ron and whisper something that made them all laugh. Percy didn't need to hear it to know that the joke was on him. Again.

"Last year, at Christmastime, the twins made such a great show of being together as family, but they didn't really mean it," he thought. "The rest of the year, it's a different story altogether."

And speaking of family. Percy scanned the room for his baby sister Ginny. She was a first-year and seemed to be making a very rough adjustment. He was acutely distressed about her. He caught a glimpse of her bright red hair. She was heading up to her dormitory, skulking really, from a dark corner of the common room, clutching that book she always carried. "Probably a diary," he guessed. "I suppose if I could get a hold of that, I'd find out what was wrong with her."

Percy, however, was far too principled to stoop so low as to nick someone's diary. Besides, he and Ginny had, well, an understanding of sorts. He had promised not to write Mother about his concerns, and she had promised not to tell anyone about his having, wonder of wonders, he thought bitterly, a girlfriend.

"_Penny_," he thought, and his insides flipped over. She was the only one who seemed to understand him, to appreciate what he thought were some pretty decent qualities about himself. And wouldn't you know it, the very first time he had been able to muster up enough nerve to kiss her, Ginny had barged in. "Damn!" he complained inwardly. "Four siblings at Hogwarts are just too many." He didn't want this thing with Penny to be one more thing that his brothers buggered up with their foolishness. He felt oppressively boxed in at every turn by the people who were supposed to care about him most, but didn't really.

He gave Ginny a little wave as she skirted the perimeter of the common room, but she didn't even look his direction. What was he going to do about her? He'd tried so hard to get her to talk, but he'd barely got three words out of her. The boys just seemed determined to make things worse, the twins especially. Didn't they grasp that Ginny, the sheltered youngest, was utterly terrified by these attacks on Muggle-borns and by how Harry was being blamed for them? Honestly, trying to cheer her up by hexing themselves with boils and whatnot and parading Harry through the corridors, announcing "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin." How immature! It was giving Ginny terrible nightmares, and he'd had to threaten to write Mother before they would stop. They certainly would never do something, however reasonable, just because _he_ had suggested it.

"And what was up with Ron?" he pondered. "Why in Merlin's Name was he so fascinated by the girls' toilets?" Percy felt certain he had not gotten to the bottom of that yet. Ron seemed to be going what Percy was starting to think of as the "Fred and George" route. That was bad enough, but Ron's accusation still hurt so terribly. When he'd suggested that Ron think of Ginny for once, Ron had turned on him with a nastiness that could only have its source in the twins. He had actually accused Percy of only caring about his chances for becoming Head Boy! Percy had been stunned by that cruel injustice and had struck out by taking away points from Gryffindor. He did want to be Head Boy very badly, of course, but this was their _sister_ he was talking about, and Percy really was concerned about her.

"Why does everyone, especially my own brothers, who should know me better, always assume the worst of me? If they're just going to think it anyway, maybe I _should_ just look out for myself," he thought harshly. "To hell with them, then." He looked over at the group of laughing housemates clustered around the twins, and something in his heart just froze. They didn't like him, that was certain, but truth was, he didn't particularly like them either. "Right, then," he thought to himself. "I'm done with you lot."

He walked over to tell off a group of first-years who had just started a rather raucous game of Exploding Snap. Then, before turning his back on Fred and George, he took a last glance at them, sneered, and left the common room to see to his other duties.


End file.
